Allhomes is seeking your feedback

I love the site as it is and check it daily. In comparison to Domain.com and realestate.com it’s well ahead in terms of functionality and more importantly usability.
We show the site to friends and family from interstate who may not have seen it and the feedback we get is that it’s the best real estate site they’ve seen.

Please don’t change a thing.

HardBallGets said :

…
PS is it true Allhomes is run by Peter Blackshaw?

I was told some years ago that it was a journalist who was working at the Canberra Times, but I won’t name names.

Taken from Allhomes.com.au

7.9 ACT Data:
Territory Data is information supplied by the Australian Capital Territory Government (ACT Government) regarding ACT property sales. Territory Data comprises the information categories below:
(a) Transfer Dates
(b) Sales prices
(c) Sales Data
(d) Block areas
(e) Division/Names
(f) Section & Block or Unit numbers
(g) Street Addresses
(h) Volumes and Folios
(i) Lease purpose codes
Territory Data is the property of the ACT. No part of it may in any form or by any means be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted without express written permission.

HardBallGets said :

You should seek owners’ permission before you publish the price they paid for their home.

You published my purchase price, then I asked you to remove it, you said you would and then you did, and now it’s back there for everyone to see.

My understanding is that this information is already publicly available and is used by all sorts of organisations and agencies for all sorts of purposes. So Allhomes is simply making already public information easier to access. If you’re worried about this being public you should complain to the government, I’m sure it’s them that are collecting and disseminating it.

HardBallGets said :

HardBallGets said :

You should seek owners’ permission before you publish the price they paid for their home.

You published my purchase price, then I asked you to remove it, you said you would and then you did, and now it’s back there for everyone to see.

Forgive me quoting my own post rather than the multiple posts to which I am replying now. Bit neater this way.

I acknowledge that some people support that the personal information of others should be freely available to the public. Other people are more concerned about personal privacy. Where each of us draws the line is a person (sometimes legal) thing.

In this case I’m referring to Allhomes publishing the previous purchase prices of every property, regardless of whether that property is for sale. Furthermore they do so without the permission of the person who made the purchase.

My house isn’t for sale, so why should Allhomes display the amount I paid for it? How do they obtain that information? As a private company existing for profit, their “product” is information which they provide on a commercial basis. With regard to previous purchase prices, what gives them the right to profit from disclosing that which is the personal information of others?

Here’s an example: Do you think that it would be OK if someone set up a website that you can search to see the previous purchase prices of everybody’s cars? Should I be able to input your rego number, and then see how much you paid for that car just because that information is of interest to some people? Might be helpful to someone who wants to buy that car, but (a) is it right to publish it, and (b) is it right to publish the price when the owner has no intent to sell?

In my case there’s another aspect that responders to my original post have not addressed. As soon as Allhomes published my purchase price, I asked them to remove it and they acknowledged that I had the right to do that and agreed to do so immediately. Years later, and without communicating with me in any way about the situation, they have again published what they agreed to not publish.

I don’t care if they publish your purchase price, and I support you if you think it’s great that they do. My concern is about my information, who has access to it, how they gain access to it, how they use if for personal profit, and what they publish after being asked and agreeing not to.

It is not allhomes that hold that information anyway as I think it is Australian Property Monitors (APM); domain.com.au also gives you previous selling price and a myriad of other websites and organisations. Get over it, it is not your information at all. And remember that the property market is only worth the amount people are prepared to pay, having your purchase price amongst the cohort of others is a good yardstick. You’re not a public servant by any chance?

JimCharles said :

screaming banshee said :

Better search refinement. Fix the sort functions, try searching for commercial properties sorted by size or price. Ability to see all properties in a region, rather than having to go into each suburb

That’s a good one. Pin a point on the map, then show all available properties within 1km, 2km etc….ignore the suburb boundaries.

Agree. That’s about the only gripe I’ve ever had on the site.

Please don’t do a complete redesign like last time. The ease and familiarity is one of the sites most endearing features and the clean and uncluttered layout makes it head and shoulders better than any other real estate website.

Please for the love of god don’t do anything silly like trying to open up Allclassifieds to an Australia wide market either. It works because its mainly local.

They should release a daily newspaper, like domain.com.au does.

(seriously, though, the domain/realestate.com.au iPad apps are amazeballs).

Allhomes is ok, it would be good if they could make the properties a bit cheaper though. Progressing the pics through the enlarged image would be good too.

JimCharles said :

Masquara said :

HardBallGets said :

You should seek owners’ permission before you publish the price they paid for their home.

You published my purchase price, then I asked you to remove it, you said you would and then you did, and now it’s back there for everyone to see.

Just curious – why don’t you want people to know what you paid for your house? It’s actually incredibly useful information for the community and for home-buyers, as it helps counter real estate agent spin. I’m all for publication, sorry!

Where do they publish the purchase price, I’ve been looking for ages?
I can see at the bottom of the suburb pages where they purchase the “last asking price” of sold properties….but this isn’t the same as the purchase price. So where is that found, and do they publish the auction prices?

Also, to the OP. Surely it’s a legal requirement and should be freely available as a public document. You pay stamp duty so the figures need to be accurate.

The list the last asking price for recently sold documents, but after the stamp duty is paid and that information becomes publicly available they will list the actual price paid. Just look out for split contract new homes though, because the list price there is the land, which is what stamp duty is paid on.

So that does get back though to what the issue is for the person that complained about the price they paid for their property. The information is actually publicly available, all Allhomes are doing are extracting that information from elsewhere and displaying it.

PS is it true Allhomes is run by Peter Blackshaw?

Please do not change. It is a good clean site. Or are you going to get more advertising pop ups moving all over the place? They annoy most people.

HardBallGets said :

You should seek owners’ permission before you publish the price they paid for their home.

You published my purchase price, then I asked you to remove it, you said you would and then you did, and now it’s back there for everyone to see.

Forgive me quoting my own post rather than the multiple posts to which I am replying now. Bit neater this way.

I acknowledge that some people support that the personal information of others should be freely available to the public. Other people are more concerned about personal privacy. Where each of us draws the line is a person (sometimes legal) thing.

In this case I’m referring to Allhomes publishing the previous purchase prices of every property, regardless of whether that property is for sale. Furthermore they do so without the permission of the person who made the purchase.

My house isn’t for sale, so why should Allhomes display the amount I paid for it? How do they obtain that information? As a private company existing for profit, their “product” is information which they provide on a commercial basis. With regard to previous purchase prices, what gives them the right to profit from disclosing that which is the personal information of others?

Here’s an example: Do you think that it would be OK if someone set up a website that you can search to see the previous purchase prices of everybody’s cars? Should I be able to input your rego number, and then see how much you paid for that car just because that information is of interest to some people? Might be helpful to someone who wants to buy that car, but (a) is it right to publish it, and (b) is it right to publish the price when the owner has no intent to sell?

In my case there’s another aspect that responders to my original post have not addressed. As soon as Allhomes published my purchase price, I asked them to remove it and they acknowledged that I had the right to do that and agreed to do so immediately. Years later, and without communicating with me in any way about the situation, they have again published what they agreed to not publish.

I don’t care if they publish your purchase price, and I support you if you think it’s great that they do. My concern is about my information, who has access to it, how they gain access to it, how they use if for personal profit, and what they publish after being asked and agreeing not to.

If there’s one thing allhomes are not, it’s ‘broke’.

screaming banshee said :

Better search refinement. Fix the sort functions, try searching for commercial properties sorted by size or price. Ability to see all properties in a region, rather than having to go into each suburb

That’s a good one. Pin a point on the map, then show all available properties within 1km, 2km etc….ignore the suburb boundaries.

Masquara said :

HardBallGets said :

You should seek owners’ permission before you publish the price they paid for their home.

You published my purchase price, then I asked you to remove it, you said you would and then you did, and now it’s back there for everyone to see.

Just curious – why don’t you want people to know what you paid for your house? It’s actually incredibly useful information for the community and for home-buyers, as it helps counter real estate agent spin. I’m all for publication, sorry!

Where do they publish the purchase price, I’ve been looking for ages?
I can see at the bottom of the suburb pages where they purchase the “last asking price” of sold properties….but this isn’t the same as the purchase price. So where is that found, and do they publish the auction prices?

Also, to the OP. Surely it’s a legal requirement and should be freely available as a public document. You pay stamp duty so the figures need to be accurate.

It’s good that they’re seeking to improve but it seems a bit strange that an online facility requires people to attend a public meeting. Online surveys or some sort of technological facility to express ideas would seem more suitable?

I dont know if this has anything to do with allhomes or the market, but it seems that many houses are already sold by the time they make it to allhomes.

Better search refinement. Fix the sort functions, try searching for commercial properties sorted by size or price. Ability to see all properties in a region, rather than having to go into each suburb

HardBallGets said :

You should seek owners’ permission before you publish the price they paid for their home.

You published my purchase price, then I asked you to remove it, you said you would and then you did, and now it’s back there for everyone to see.

Why is it a secret? It’s not like they are publishing any personal information.

HardBallGets said :

You should seek owners’ permission before you publish the price they paid for their home.

You published my purchase price, then I asked you to remove it, you said you would and then you did, and now it’s back there for everyone to see.

You should publish the purchase price regardless of the buyers wishes. This kind of information should be freely and publicly available for all.

I think this thread may be full of contradictory requests.

Masquara said :

HardBallGets said :

You should seek owners’ permission before you publish the price they paid for their home.

You published my purchase price, then I asked you to remove it, you said you would and then you did, and now it’s back there for everyone to see.

Just curious – why don’t you want people to know what you paid for your house? It’s actually incredibly useful information for the community and for home-buyers, as it helps counter real estate agent spin. I’m all for publication, sorry!

I agree with Masquara – this is valuable information for ensuring the market is open and transparent. All sale prices should be publicly available.

I have recently been very involved with the AllHomes site, with childers purchasing houses.

I am hard pressed to suggest improvements to the current site. Auction prices are only unavailable if you didn’t attend the auction until listed on the ACTGOV site.

Sure, the agency employed photographers are more than capable of turning sows ears into silk purses, but this is quickly realised by serious buyers.

All Homes is a very competent web site for advertising property for sale.

I have absolutely no connection with All Homes. But their website works a treat!

I’m with the peeps saying if it aint broke… I check it daily. I dont like change.

One thing you can do is improve your iphone app. It’s rubbish.

HardBallGets said :

You should seek owners’ permission before you publish the price they paid for their home.

You published my purchase price, then I asked you to remove it, you said you would and then you did, and now it’s back there for everyone to see.

Just curious – why don’t you want people to know what you paid for your house? It’s actually incredibly useful information for the community and for home-buyers, as it helps counter real estate agent spin. I’m all for publication, sorry!

milkman said :

Get rid of the stupid thumbnail pictures that appear on the suburb listing. It’s a waste of bandwidth when you’re on a slow connection.

I was going to suggest bigger thumbnails and photos within the listings…

I heard somewhere that AllHomes are trying to branch out into other states and territories, that could explain why they are trying to improve the site.

You should seek owners’ permission before you publish the price they paid for their home.

You published my purchase price, then I asked you to remove it, you said you would and then you did, and now it’s back there for everyone to see.

Get rid of the stupid thumbnail pictures that appear on the suburb listing. It’s a waste of bandwidth when you’re on a slow connection.

Why do you feel the need to change allhomes? It`s clearly the no.1 real estate website in the region. It`s easy to use and easy to find your way around. If it aint broke don`t fix it. What ever you do don`t let it end up like the stupid domain website.